With the Earth getting warmer and weather events more extreme, the African Union has set up a Disaster Operations Center in Nairobi to help monitor major hazards and provide regional early warnings for drought, floods, extreme rainfall, food insecurity, and pests like the desert locusts. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera – Jim Makhulo.
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Day: November 16, 2021
Russian officials on Tuesday rejected accusations that they endangered astronauts aboard the International Space Station by conducting a weapons test that created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk.
U.S. officials on Monday accused Russia of destroying an old satellite with a missile in what they called a reckless and irresponsible strike. The debris could do major damage to the space station as it is orbiting at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph).
Astronauts now face four times greater risk than normal, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told The Associated Press.
The test clearly demonstrates that Russia, “despite its claims of opposing the weaponization of outer space, is willing to … imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behavior,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos wouldn’t confirm or deny that the strike took place, saying only that “unconditional safety of the crew has been and remains our main priority” in a vague online statement released Tuesday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday confirmed carrying out a test and destroying a defunct satellite that has been in orbit since 1982, but insisted that “the U.S. knows for certain that the resulting fragments, in terms of test time and orbital parameters, did not and will not pose a threat to orbital stations, spacecraft and space activities” and called remarks by U.S. officials “hypocritical.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also charged that it is “hypocrisy” to say that Russia creates risks for peaceful activities in space.
Once the situation became clear early Monday morning, the four Americans, one German and two Russians on board the International Space Station were ordered to immediately seek shelter in their docked capsules. They spent two hours in the two capsules, finally emerging only to have to close and reopen hatches to the station’s individual labs on every orbit, or 1 1/2 hours, as they passed near or through the debris.
NASA Mission Control said the heightened threat could continue to interrupt the astronauts’ science research and other work. Four of the seven crew members only arrived at the orbiting outpost Thursday night.
A similar weapons test by China in 2007 also resulted in countless pieces of debris. One of those threatened to come dangerously close to the space station last week. While it later was dismissed as a risk, NASA had the station move anyway.
Anti-satellite missile tests by the U.S. in 2008 and India in 2019 were conducted at much lower altitudes, well below the space station at about 260 miles (420 kilometers.)
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Greece and U.S. tech giant Microsoft have teamed up to digitally revive one of the ancient world’s most sacrosanct sites: the birthplace of the Olympic Games. The ambitious project uses technology to immerse viewers in the world of ancient Olympia.
The collaboration between Microsoft and the Greek Culture Ministry will allow millions of visitors to immerse themselves in an experience that organizers say brings history to life.
At a recent news conference in Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Microsoft officials said they used artificial intelligence to map the site, augmenting reality to help restore the sacrosanct location as it might have looked some 2,000 years ago.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitostakis attended the launch and said the project would revive Greece’s greatest commodity — its history.
“Technology is opening up a completely different way of experiencing what our culture is all about. And the project in Olympia is so important because it demonstrates the power of technology to not just look at the site, but also the lives of people, how societies were organized,” Mitostakis said.
Among the 27 monuments being featured are the original Olympic stadium, the temples of Zeus and Hera, and the workshop of the renowned sculptor Phidias.
Through data provided by Greek archaeologists, the sites are as close as possible to their original forms. In-person visitors are provided with smart glasses at the site so they can get an idea of what the locations would have looked like in ancient times. Visitors also see timelines of how the sites have changed over time, as well as depictions of artifacts from various periods.
Antigone Papanikolaou of Microsoft explained in a presentation.
“It’s like passing the flame from the old generations to the next. The fact that we can now go and experience how our predecessors were creating and living and seeing that as it was in ancient Greece, It’s amazing,” Papanikolaou said.
Organizers say people who are not able to visit the site in southern Greece will be able to take a virtual tour using a computer or mobile app. Critics tell The Associated Press that the program will extend “the invasive power” of U.S. tech giants.
Work on the ambitious project took 18 months, with drones and sensors being used to help map the sites.
Officials in Greece, a treasure trove of antiquities, say the cultural implications for the country are now endless.
Some information came from The Associated Press.
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A Russian weapons test created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk that is now threatening the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station, U.S. officials said Monday.
The State Department confirmed that the debris was from an old Russian satellite destroyed by the missile strike.
“It was dangerous. It was reckless. It was irresponsible,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
The Russian military and ministry of defense were not immediately available for comment, according to a Reuters report.
Earlier Monday, the four Americans, one German and two Russians on board were forced to briefly seek shelter in their docked capsules because of the debris.
At least 1,500 pieces of the destroyed satellite were sizable enough to show up on radar and with telescopes, Price said. But countless other fragments were too small to track, yet still posed a danger to the space station as well as orbiting satellites.
Even a fleck of paint can do major damage when orbiting at 28,000 kph (17,500 mph). Something big, upon impact, could be catastrophic.
“We are going to continue to make very clear that we won’t tolerate this kind of activity,” Price said.
He said the U.S. has “repeatedly raised with Russian counterparts our concerns for a potential satellite test.”
NASA Mission Control said the heightened threat from the debris might continue for another couple of days and continue to interrupt the astronauts’ science research and other work. Four of the seven crew members arrived at the orbiting outpost Thursday night.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who’s midway through a yearlong mission, called it “a crazy but well-coordinated day” as he bid Mission Control good night.
“It was certainly a great way to bond as a crew, starting off with our very first work day in space,” he said.
The U.S. Space Command said it was tracking the field of orbiting debris. NASA had made no comment by late afternoon, and there was no word late Monday from Russia about the missile strike.
A similar weapons test by China in 2007 also resulted in countless pieces of debris. One of those pieces threatened to come dangerously close to the space station last week. While it later was dismissed as a risk, NASA had the station move anyway.
Anti-satellite missile tests by the U.S. in 2008 and India in 2019 were conducted at much lower altitudes, well below the space station.
Until Monday, the Space Command already was tracking some 20,000 pieces of space junk, including old and broken satellites from around the world.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said it will take days if not weeks and months to catalogue the latest wreckage and confirm their orbits. The fragments will begin to spread out over time, due to atmospheric drag and other forces, he said in an email.
The space station is at especially high risk because the test occurred near its orbit, McDowell said. But all objects in low-Earth orbit — including China’s three-person space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope — will be at “somewhat enhanced risk” over the next few years, he noted.
John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the most immediate concern was the space debris. Beyond that, the United States is monitoring “the kinds of capabilities that Russia seems to want to develop which could pose a threat not just to our national security interest but to the security interests of other space-faring nations.”
Earlier in the day, the Russian Space Agency said via Twitter that the astronauts were ordered into their docked capsules, in case they had to make a quick getaway. The agency said the crew was back doing routine operations, and the space station’s commander, Russian Anton Shkaplerov, tweeted: “Friends, everything is regular with us!”
But the cloud of debris posed a threat on each passing orbit — or every one and a half hours — and all robotic activity on the U.S. side was put on hold. German astronaut Matthias Maurer also had to find a safer place to sleep than the European lab.
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Relentless rain battered Canada’s Pacific coast on Monday, forcing a town’s evacuation and trapping motorists as mudslides, rocks and debris were washed across major highways.
Some 275 people, according to local media, were stuck overnight in their cars between two mudslides on Highway 7 near the town of Agassiz in British Columbia.
Meanwhile, Merritt – about 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the coast – ordered the evacuation of all 7,000 of its townsfolk after flooding compromised the local wastewater treatment plant and washed out two bridges. Barricades also went up restricting access to the town.
The province’s public safety minister, Mike Farnworth, said search and rescue crews were dispatched to free people trapped for hours without food or water in 80 to 100 cars.
“We are looking at the possibility of air rescues, if needed,” he told a news conference, adding that “high winds may challenge these efforts.”
Farnworth said there had been “multiple rain-induced incidents” in the southwest and central regions of the province, describing the situation as “dynamic.”
Video footage showed a military helicopter landing on the highway covered in mud and debris, to pick up stranded motorists.
British Columbia emergency health services said it transported nine patients to hospital with minor injuries overnight from the Agassiz landslide.
And it assembled ambulances in nearby Chilliwack “for any patients requiring care from areas affected by flooding and landslides,” it added.
Emergency centers were also set up for displaced residents.
In a Twitter message to British Columbians, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “Please stay safe.”
“We’re ready to provide whatever assistance is needed as you deal with and recover from the flooding and this extreme weather,” he said.
British Columbia’s transportation ministry said several highways were closed Monday. “Heavy rains and subsequent mudslides/flooding have impacted various highways in the BC interior,” it said.
The local utility issued flood alerts due to high water flows into its reservoirs, and said it was working to restore power to thousands hit by outages.
Construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline connecting the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast was also paused “due to widespread flooding and debris flows,” a company spokesperson told AFP.
In the city of Abbotsford, outside Vancouver, authorities ordered more than 100 homes evacuated in several neighborhoods threatened by flooding and mudslides, while television images showed farms in the Fraser Valley under several feet of water.
Meteorologist Tyler Hamilton commented on social media that Abbotsford in the past 140 days had experienced both its warmest and wettest days ever.
Environment Canada said up to 250 millimeters (almost 10 inches) of rain — what the region normally gets in a month — was expected by the day’s end in and around Vancouver, which was also hit last week by a rare tornado.
“A significant atmospheric river event continues to bring copious amounts of rain to the B.C. south coast,” it said.
“Heavy rain will ease and strong westerly winds will develop this afternoon as the system moves inland.”
The extreme weather comes after British Columbia suffered record-high temperatures over the summer that killed more than 500 people, as well as wildfires that destroyed a town.
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